All CompilersThe LLVM backend has been upgraded from version 6.0 to 7.0 and is now the default code generator for Linux x86-64 platforms. This is a significant change that is described in more detail in the LLVM Code Generator section.

Upgraded FlexNet Publisher licensing to version 11.16.2 from 11.14.1.3 for x86-64. The newer daemons are backwards-compatible with previous versions of the PGI compilers. The reverse is not true. This release, and future releases, of the PGI compilers are not compatible with the older daemons and require version 11.16.2 at a minimum.

PCAST (PGI Compiler-Assisted Software Testing) now supports C and Fortran directives that are equivalent to the existing library API calls.
Added support for the following versions of Linux/x86-64:
•CentOS 7.6
•Fedora 29
•RHEL 7.6
•Ubuntu 18.10
Added support for Windows Server 2019 and macOS Mojave.

C/C++Updated support for SIMD intrinsic functions in the pgc++ compiler for Linux/x86-64 platforms. Support is comprehensive for SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1 and SSE4.2 intrinsics. Many of the AVX, AVX2 and AVX-512 intrinsics are now implemented as well. We expect to add comprehensive support for the AVX intrinsics in a future release.
The pgc++ compiler now implements full support for the C+17 language standard.

Fortran
Added support for the ERROR STOP statement.
Added run-time checks to enforce CONTIGUOUS behavior. These checks only occur in code running on the CPU; in particular, they do not occur in code running on a GPU.
Improved Fortran reshape performance, and handling of derived type c-binding for C++ objects.

Known Issues and Limitations
Passing -M[no]llvm to MPI wrappers (mpicc, mpifort, etc.) is not supported. Doing so will cause unresolved symbol errors and segmentation faults when compiling.

Using -V<version> with the PGI 2019 compilers to target PGI 2018 or earlier releases is not supported. This is a known limitation that is the result of the switch to using LLVM compilers as the default code generator for the PGI 2019 compilers.

Programs built with OpenMPI 3.1.3 that use only one MPI rank will hang if invoked directly. You must now run the program with mpirun -np 1 ./executable or set the environment variable OMPI_MCA_ess_singleton_isolated=1. This is a known and intended behavior change in the 3.1.3 version of OpenMPI.

OpenMP profiling is not supported for Fortran applications that use both OpenACC and OpenMP, and use critical sections, OpenMP lock API calls, or performs I/O. OpenACC profiling of these applications is still possible by disabling OpenMP profiling with the '--openmp-profiling off' option to pgprof.

Deprecations and Eliminations
CUDA 9.1 is no longer included as part of the PGI compilers installation package.
The PGI compilers installation packages no longer include pre-compiled versions of MPICH or MVAPICH.
The pgf77 driver is deprecated. Use pgfortran to compile F77 Fortran.

Added support for patch-and-continue to autocompare. When an incorrect value is detected, autocompare will emit a warning, replace the bad value with the known good value,
and continue execution. More details can be found in the PCAST Overview.

C/C++Our C and C++ compilers now have GCC-compatible support for visibility. Visibility in
this context describes how symbols should be exported from shared libraries. By default,
functions have global scope and can be called from other objects. Functions with hidden
visibility have local scope and cannot be called from other objects.

The compiler now implements -fvisibility and -fvisibility-inlines-hidden switches.

-fvisibility=[default|internal|hidden|protected]
This switch tells the compiler how to set the default ELF image symbol visibility.
All symbols are marked with global visibility unless overridden with this switch or with
the visibility attribute.

-fvisibility-inlines-hidden
This switch tells the compiler that the code does not compare pointers to inline functions
where the addresses of the two functions are from different objects. This option has the
same effect as marking inline methods with __attribute__((visibility(“hidden”))).

Fortran
Added support for Fortran 2018 DO CONCURRENT. The body of the DO CONCURRENT
block is executed serially.
We now generate debug metadata for Fortran COMMON blocks when compiling with the
LLVM-based code generator.
Improved Fortran MATMUL performance for small matrices.

OpenACC and CUDA Fortran
Added support for the CUDA Toolkit version 10.0. Read more about support for CUDA
Toolkit versions in CUDA Toolkit Versions.
Added support for the use of relocatable device code within shared objects on Linux
platforms.
Added definition of _CUDA and __CUDA_API_VERSION to C and C++ compilers when
compiling with -Mcuda.
Disabled the nollvm sub-option for -ta=tesla and -Mcuda switches on Windows.
The Windows compilers will ignore nollvm and emit a warning to that effect.

Windows
PGI command-line compilers for Windows now support Visual Studio 2017, which is required as a prerequisite.

PGI Visual Fortran (PVF) is no longer available for sale to new users. Support and updates for existing licenses will be provided through 2019.

PGI 18.7 was the last release to include bundled Microsoft toolchain components. 18.10 and future releases require users to have the Microsoft toolchain components pre-installed on their system. IMPORTANT: Only users who have purchased a PGI Professional for Windows license on or before August 31, 2018 will have access to PGI 18.7 and earlier PGI Professional for Windows releases. Since 18.10 is also a Community Edition release, we encourage you to defer new PGI Professional for Windows license sales until the release of 19.1. Sales of maintenance renewals to existing users can continue during this time.

2017.05.30
Today we released PGI 17.5 [1], a quality-improvement release that
also expands operating system support to include Ubuntu 17.04 and Redhat
Enterprise Linux 6.9.

DOWNLOAD ACCESS
Only users with a PGI account linked to a PGI for-fee license can
download 17.5 [2] without assistance from PGI. Licensed end-users in
large organizations who are _ not_ linked to a PGI for-fee license
should _ first contact their license administrator_ or IT department for
assistance. PGI Sales [3] can also assist with granting download access
to such users.

EVALUATIONS
For purchase evaluations, we first encourage prospective users to try PGI Community Edition [4], which is currently 17.4. If prospective customers wish to try 17.5, they should contact PGI Sales for a temporary evaluation [5] download link.

Libraries
- Linux products now ship with pre-built Open MPI 1.10.2; MVAPICH 2.2 and MPICH 3.2 available to current support subscribers
- Pre-built versions of NetCDF 4.4.1.1 and Parallel NetCDF 1.7.0 available online
- Pre-built versions of the Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF) 7.0.0 available online; one - per PGI-built MPI distribution